Customers Feel Special Ordering 'Secret Menu' Items

April 18, 2013|BY LEEANNE GRIFFIN, Special to the Courant, The Hartford Courant

In-n-Out Burger fans are familiar with the West Coast chain's "secret menu," the inventory of unofficial preparations for its burgers, sandwiches, fries and milkshakes. But perhaps none more than the blogger at WhatUpWilly.com, who created the "100x100" burger at a Las Vegas location in 2004.

He and a group of friends tested the restaurant's accommodating nature by ordering a standard Double-Double — two burger patties and two slices of cheese — then adding 98 more of each. Ninety-eight dollars and nearly 20,000 calories later, the monstrosity became a viral hit.

In-n-Out does list a few off-menu items on its website, under the heading "Not So Secret Menu." "But in reality, we don't have any secrets at all," the copy reads. "It's just the way some of our customers like their burgers prepared, and we're all about making our customers happy."

While selections from the In-n-Out secret menu require a plane ticket, several restaurant chains closer to home have been known to make special, custom orders. All you need to do is ask. And we did.

Panera Bread

Secret menu item: A new "hidden menu" of protein-heavy breakfast bowls and lunch and dinner salads

"Can I order something from your hidden menu?" I asked the beaming assistant manager as the lunch-rush line grew behind me.

"Sure!" she replied instantly, then laughed. "I love how you asked that so quietly."

Panera's "hidden menu," which launched in January, is publicly available — it's the first search result when you Google the term. But it's not listed on the café menu boards, and word has spread mostly through social media.

"It became this great word-of-mouth thing," said Wendy Kopp, director of marketing for Panera/Howley Bread Group, which operates Panera franchises in Connecticut, Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts. "Little by little by little, it's really grown to be a more popular way to order a meal."

The menu features two "power breakfast" bowls: one with egg whites, roasted turkey, basil pesto, baby spinach and peppers; the other with eggs, seared sirloin, tomatoes and avocado. For lunch and dinner, there are three salads, topped with antibiotic-free roasted chicken and turkey, and a "steak lettuce wrap" bowl with leaf lettuce and fresh vegetables. The meals all come in under 400 calories, according to Panera's nutritional information.

I loved the zesty cilantro-jalapeno hummus topping the "power chicken bowl" ($7.79) with fresh baby spinach, diced tomatoes and red onion, a squeeze of fresh lemon bringing it all together. My colleague's Mediterranean chicken salad, with baby spinach, romaine, diced egg and bacon, was a little dry — it may have been missing the promised extra virgin olive oil.

Managers at local Panera restaurants have said that customers ordering from the hidden menu feel like they're in "the insiders' club," said Kopp. "When they come to order, they say, 'I'd like to order from the hidden menu. Wink, wink.'"

Starbucks

Secret menu item: Endless options

There exists, an entire website, dedicated to off-menu drink preparations at Starbucks. Starbuckssecretmenu.net presents itself as "a collection of beverage creations that have been skillfully concocted by Starbucks baristas and connoisseurs from all around the world."

The website shares recipes for "secret" lattes and other blended drinks, using clever combinations of flavored syrups, toppings and other modifications to produce Snickers, "cotton candy" and chocolate-covered strawberry Frappuccinos; "dirty chai" lattes with a shot of espresso or the "chocolate Dalmatian" — a hot white chocolate mocha sprinkled with java chips.

The site suggests you order drinks by recipe instead of name, as not to confuse baristas. So instead of a "Red Tuxedo Frappuccino," for example, ask for a blend of white chocolate mocha and regular mocha Frappuccinos, with two pumps of raspberry syrup.

Have your ingredient list ready, and prepare to pay extra for flavor shots. And be kind —- tip a little more if your drink is complicated.

Chipotle

Secret menu item: Quesadilla

OK, so the quesadillas aren't really "secret items" at Chipotle, as they're listed on the board under the kids' menu section. But they're a steal at $3.50. Until you try to get fancy.

"We have to charge this as a burrito," the brusque counter employee told me as I asked to add pico de gallo to the mix of cubed adobo-marinated steak and shredded cheese on the large tortilla.

Strangely, my receipt instead reflected $3.50 for "large quesadilla" and $2.35 for "extra steak," bringing it to a total of $5.85.

Food sites and blogs have spoken reverently of another secret Chipotle item, a "Quesarito" — that is, a burrito wrapped in a cheese quesadilla. Chipotle spokesman Chris Arnold told BuzzFeed the Quesarito is not officially on the menu, but the company's culture trains employees to make what customers ask for, within reason.